LA County businesses experience ‘A Day Without Immigrants’

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Kabeer Roowala, who is open 365 days a year, shut his Perfumes Los Angeles stores so his employees could observe “A Day Without Immigrants” protest on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. Roowala, who immigrated from India at age 7, says, “Inclusiveness that has been part of the American ideals has been attacked.”

Pedestrians pass a closed store on Maple Avenue in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. Many stores in the area were closed for “A Day Without Immigrants” protest.

In downtown Los Angeles’ busy garment district, Kabeer Roowala kept the steel shutters over the entrance of his perfume business pulled down Thursday. It was a small gesture to send a big message: Immigrants matter. All of them. Legal or not. No matter where they come from.

“I’m an American first, and I’m very proud of this country, even in turbulent times,” Roowala, who was born in India, said from the back of his Perfumes Los Angeles shop. “What I want people to understand is this country is built on our backs. You cannot have an America without the immigrant component to it.”

Across Los Angeles County on Thursday, businesses closed or gave their employees the day off as part of an impromptu movement called A Day Without Immigrants, described as a protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.

Trump wants to build a wall along the Mexican border and enact travel restrictions on people from seven majority-Muslim countries.

Last week, 161 people in Southern California were detained during a targeted operation by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The arrests were part of a nationwide effort to deport criminals who are in the country illegally. Though ICE officials denied it, immigrant activists called the sweeps coordinated events that were part of Trump’s hard-line stance on undocumented immigrants.

News of A Day Without Immigrants walkouts and boycotts at mom and pop shops and chain restaurants such as Tender Greens in Torrance were sporadic across the county compared with more widespread events in Washington, D.C., New York and other cities where celebrity chefs backed the events on social media and shuttered their restaurants.

Students across the county had also been encouraged on social media to skip classes.

But the Los Angeles Unified School District urged them not to join any walkouts in a voicemail sent out Wednesday night.

“The purpose of (A Day Without Immigrants) is to send a message of how much immigrants are needed and what it’s like if they are not around,” said Martha Escobar, assistant professor of Chicano/a Studies at Cal State Northridge.

Escobar acknowledged that those who support Trump may not be swayed by the messages behind such movements. But she said more people who disagree with his policies or who are directly affected, are starting to realize they can’t remain silent.

“It’s raising awareness that there is mobilization,” she said.

The economic impact of the protest movement will likely be unknown for some time.

But businesses that depend on immigrant workers will be hurt most if Trump’s agenda continues said Manuel Pastor, director of the Center of the Study Immigrant Integration at USC.

A report released earlier this month showed that immigrants in Los Angeles County contributed $232.9 billion to the region’s economy in 2014. The report also found that 41 percent of the county’s labor force is foreign born.

Pastor said movements such as A Day Without Immigrants and an upcoming march on Saturday may not reach Trump’s ears. But they do reach Democratic lawmakers in Washington and persuade them to hold firm on certain policies.

“They convince local and state policy makers to resist the president’s executive order,” Pastor said of the movements and marches, adding that they give “Democratic leaders more spine.”

On Saturday, at least 20,000 people plan to attend the Free the People Immigration March in downtown Los Angeles, while another 61,000 said they are interested in going, according to the event’s Facebook page.

“Since Trump’s inauguration, our communities have been met with the exacerbation of raids, Muslim bans, hate crimes and criminalization,” lead organizer Isaac Price wrote on Facebook. “We invite everyone to join us as we unite around those being attacked. We stand with and elevate the voices of the undocumented, Black, Brown, trans, queer, Muslim communities who are leading the way in the resistance.”

Among a long list of demands, organizers want ICE raids and deportations to stop. They also want Los Angeles to remain a sanctuary city and all people, documented and undocumented, to have access to health care.

Roowala, who runs two perfume businesses in downtown Los Angeles, said he has been heartened by all the support for immigrants, which is why he wanted to give his 18 employees, who are mostly Latino immigrants, the day off.

“I want to stand in solidarity with my immigrant family,” he said. “If you look at the ideals of what America stands for, it’s about having a better life. People who come here, legal or not, that’s what they are looking for. They deserve at the very minimum, a place where they can plead their case.”